In a new investigation entitled “Ockenden report”, the British public health service, NHS, is singled out for acts of mistreatment of newborns and their mothers.
Between 2000 and 2018, thirteen women lost their lives giving birth in the western UK maternity hospital, the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, located in Shrewsbury. Seven newborns also died as a result of care errors. This is the chilling observation made by the “Ockenden report”, published on December 10, which sheds light on suspicions of mistreatment of newborns and their mothers, over several decades.
According to Ouest France, the first people to have alerted the authorities to this maternity hospital are Richard Stanton and Rhiannon Davies. They lost their daughter, Kate, hours after her birth in March 2009. Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths then attacked the hospital after their daughter Pippa died from a group B strep infection in 2016.
Following these complaints, including 21 others for cases of suspected hospital mistreatment, the government opened an independent investigation in 2017. A year later, the Ockenden report committee decided to scrutinize maternity between 1998 and 2017. In 2020, West Mercia Police open an investigation to "Determine whether there is any evidence to allow the opening of a criminal case against the institution or against those involved."
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Nearly 2,000 cases identified
This report aims to assess "independently the quality of investigations relating to neonatal, child and maternal harm" within the maternity ward. The authors looked at 1,862 cases “Reported maternity and neonatal damage between the years 2000 and 2019. These include cases of stillbirth, neonatal death, maternal death, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and other serious complications in mothers and newborns. -born. "
Kate's mother Rhiannon Davies told Sky News about this report: "Today's interim review findings are truly shocking and incredibly difficult to read."
A nursing staff questioned
Over the course of the report, we learn that nursing staff at the maternity ward were unprofessional in refusing Caesarean sections, resorting to forceps, and injecting high-dose drugs like oxytocin, which poses risks to the heart rate of patients. fetus. In addition, the nursing staff used “Inappropriate language” to address patients in particular “To cause distress” and for them to feel "pathetic". Some women who have lost their children "were blamed for the loss of their child, which made their grief worse."
A failure of the British public health service, which had already been singled out in an independent report, in eleven English hospitals. The hospital's executive director, Louise Barnett, reacted: "We are committed to implementing all actions outlined in this report and I can assure the women and families who use our services that if they raise concerns about their care, they will be heard and action taken."
This alarming report was forwarded to the country's Secretary of State for Health.